Money, money, money

Today we are talking money---it’s payday for the ladies (they get paid twice a month) and are getting more grivna since we are making more milk- they get paid more. They wanted to be paid a percentage of the amount we get for the milk (it's how they were paid before)- they keep track of how much milk each of them actually get from the cows they milk.
Unfortunately it looks like the amount we get paid for milk (and thus the amount they get) will be going down this week. The milk buyers say that they can’t continue to pay the 4 grivna a litter they have been paying for milk- Garry is going to try to get 3.7 but we’ll see if we can keep at least 3.5 a liter. Bargaining has started with stories of not being able to sell the milk...or sour cream... the price is dropping in the market... We have been talking with Danone, but Garry doesn’t want to hurt the buyers who have been buying our milk all winter.

The reasons for the milk price drop seem to be because the supply goes up now, cows are calving in the villages (nine months ago the cows went out to eat the spring grass- so it was prime time to get pregnant) meaning the price drop starts in February. I am sure it will be the same story in May when all the village cows get on the grass and make piles of milk.
Another theory I heard today is that during Lent the Orthodox population is not eating fat, contributing to the dropping demand for sour cream. Sour cream and cottage cheese is what the milk buyers make out of the unsold milk, and they are staples for cooking Ukrainian dishes.

Garry has found out what all the employees do with their pay- and he says it’s a great example of the importance of family to the average Ukrainian. Maxim sends about three-quarters of his salary to his mother to pay a debt that his family owes in his home village.
The milker ladies are Yana and Luba. Yana is 27 and her parents still live on the farm where the herd of cows came from- where she used to milk the cows before we bought them. She goes to visit them a few times a week, and is using her pay to buy two cows and two heifers that we didn’t buy from the lady farmer for her mother to set her up to milk cows. She has also bought the last two bull calves that were born here and is paying us for the milk they drink. I assume they will end up at her parents in the spring.
Luba is older and divorced. Garry found out that she has 3 sons but only one has a job so she is supporting them. Ukrainians finish high school at 16 – so they must be older than that. Jobs are hard to get and most don’t pay well. This is partly due to the world economy.

Garry tells me that even though the temperature is still down (-17 C at 8 pm tonight) the wind dropped off today and the barn warmed up inside to keep his big pipe in the head rails from freezing- although they were thawing the waterbowls this morning. It seems that Garry is going to get to try out his new feed ration at his new job consulting at the other farm, he met with the boss today.
Maxim was cleaning up the manure outside today, but is starting work on welding the vacuum line for the milking system that we hope to get working before spring. Victor and Maxim have been busy shopping around to the steel and necessary parts for it. The milker ladies seem excited about trying it out now.